Episode 135 Transcript

You're listening to the Fierce Fatty Podcast episode 135. Food addiction, Sugar Addiction, Carbs Addiction?! Oh my goodness, let's do it.

Unknown Speaker 0:26

Hello, and welcome to this episode. Did you miss me? Did you miss me? Did you think I was dead? I'm not dead. Whoo. Hey, so I had a few weeks off unexpected it was my birthday. So I was like fuck at this Leo needs like a month off. It wasn't a month it was two weeks. But there was one week where I was too busy to record the podcast. Anyway. So thanks for hanging around. Thanks for coming back for this new episode if you were waiting with breath that was baited. Or maybe you didn't even notice. Maybe you listened to all those years from now. And now you're like, What are you talking about? Anyway? Hi, hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. It's about 50 billion degrees. Today's I've got a couple of hands going. Hopefully the two not too noisy in the background there. I want to start off first with someone sent me a DM and was responding to I can't remember what episode it was. But in the episode I was talking about that shot that film Supersize Me synthesized made you remember that film where he Morgan Spurlock was the guy who filmed himself only eating McDonald's for I don't know how long. And then afterwards, the doctor looked at his body and was like, your body's fucked up. And there was something like you're going into liver failure. And they were like, Sue, this is what McDonald's does. If you eat McDonald's, you're gonna go into liver failure and die. Anyway. So when someone emailed me and said, actually, it came out, Morgan Spurlock revealed that he was a heavy alcohol user at the time and had been since he was a teenager. And so that's why his liver was not good shape. But they didn't reveal that in the movie, because then they wouldn't be able to blame McDonald's for killing people, I guess. So I thought that was interesting. I was like, Oh, well, well, well. Who knows? Who knows? Whatever. Just a little, just a little tip. tip, tip bit, no dead bit. Let's just call it tip bit from now one little tidbit for you. Another thing that's came out recently is the FAA, the Federal airline authority. American Airline authority, basically, federal American Airlines or who knows who the fuck knows. Anyway, they have said. They said Listen up here. We want to know how big you think the seats need to be. For safety. Right? I got an email from Anne who says My name is Anne. I'm a fatty from Brookline or Brooklyn. Not it's not Brooklyn, as in Ms. Nh New Hampshire. I'm guessing I've been following you on Instagram for a while now. And I love how passionately you advocate for all of us fatties. That's what I thought of you. When this idea opportunity arose. So she says as part of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, the US Federal Aviation Association Well, there you go, that's what it is. Federal us aviation association is asking for public feedback on airplane seat size. They have stressed that the info opinions they are looking for need to be related specifically to passenger safety during an emergency, not comfort. According to CNN, the FAA conducted several simulated emergency evacuations in 2019 and 2020. And based on those simulations, they have decided that seat size and spacing did not adversely affect the success of emergency evacuations. However, the simulations were conducted on using, quote, able bodied adult subjects younger than 60. Obviously, larger people have much more difficulty moving through airplanes because of the narrow aisles and tight rows, but it seems that the FAA doesn't feel that they need to take this into consideration, even though almost 75% of Americans are fat. So I filed a complaint with them and I shared the link to Twitter, here's that link. And so on is saying here's the here's the links for the comments that you can make for the regulations.gov and ads left a great comment. So you can even just like kind of copy what an has done, and then leave a comment. We've got almost 10,000 comments there. So the more comments are better and some people are not are saying, Oh, I'm tall and and so it makes it uncomfortable. These motherfuckers don't care about your comfort, they care about getting sued because the seats are too close together and fat people can't get out.

Unknown Speaker 5:37

That's what it's about, right? They're probably scared about losing money. It's about money right? So you need to you need to say how fat folks are going to be trapped in an airplane if they can't get out because the seats are so tiny and even strays eyes people's shit man like, it's like, the width between the seats, you know, the leg room, it's like, as wide as a slice of paper, you know, there's nothing there. So if you're a straight sides person listening right now, please go to the link in the show notes, which is facebook.com forward slash 135 facebook.com. Forward slash 135. For Episode 135, if you don't remember, it's always is always this way to comm forward slash podcast and leave a comment that will be your act of ally ship for two day and leave a comment and say it's way too tiny. Even I as a small person, or it should be this big. We need to be safe. Fat people need to be safe. If you want to and you're a fat person, you can do the same thing. You can go and look at Ann's comment. I'll leave the link for and comment too. And you can kind of see what she's written because it's good. Right? Great. Okay, so today's episode is talking about food addiction, sugar addiction, carbs addiction, and I've spoken about this previously, but it was quite a while ago and so maybe new listeners haven't heard it or you've probably forgotten even if you've listened already, but I'm I'm adding in new things. But shit like I can't even remember the episodes I've done. So how are you? How do you How are you meant to remember? People like Oh, remember that episode you did about blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, No, like I remember some of the key ones but most of it I don't remember what I've even spoken about. So how how why am I expecting you to remember every single word I've ever said. And anyway, we can talk about you know, the same top topics in different ways and it's all good. Yeah, so the idea of food addiction or sugar addiction or carb addiction or any type of subset of food addiction. I was thinking about it because you know we did I did an episode with some in an on Jvn Jonathan Van Ness and their TV show it was called it is called curious thing it's called getting curious with with Jvn Jvn uses he they cheap pre printed cheat sheet. I can't I can't look them up because he's blocked me on. He's blocked me on Instagram. After they had the episode or didn't. They didn't probably didn't hear the episode. They saw that I had tagged him in a post anyway, so I'm gonna be using their him pronouns. For Jvn, just an FYI. So in this episode, there was a dietician who was like, let's talk about FedEx. And jbn is like, yes. Tell me more about it. And she's like, let's look at the science. This is your brain on sugar. And then it was like, oh, jokes. This is like, oh, no, cocaine is people's brains on cocaine. It's the same. You're basically addicted to sugar food. You are a out of control person, oh my god, you need to go on a diet and wanting to kind of talk about this more go in depth more because I guarantee there are people listening being like, Well, I think I'm a food addict. I think I'm a sugar addict. I feel like Jvn and he was saying how, how they were sneaking food that nighttime or not eating any food all day long. And then at the end of the night being like, Oh, I ate some food. Now to me, to me, as someone who talks about this stuff, I'm like, okay, it seems really obvious that you just need to eat some food. Ah,

Unknown Speaker 10:01

but I know that it can be very distressing for a lot of people. And in fact, I had a history with really feeling like I was a food addict, I really felt like I should be going to Oh, a Overeaters Anonymous, because I felt so out of control with food I was obsessed with it was the first thing that I thought of when I woke up in the morning saying, prayers, maybe Jesus, I can't eat some breakfast. And then it would be like, Okay, well, I've had my measly breakfast now, how long? Is it until I can have lunch? How many hours? Or is it almost sir, I can't wait to eat. And obviously, it seems very clear at the time to me that there was something wrong with me and I was addicted to food. It makes sense, right? Because you're having these feelings. Of I can't wait to wake up in the morning. So I'm allowed to eat. And I wish I could eat more food and dreaming about food. So and then when you when you think about what is the common rhetoric around this stuff, so the common rhetoric I did a little bit of looking up seeing what people are saying nowadays about it. At that time, that was, oh my goodness, 20 years ago now. When that was really, when that was really difficult for me. It is, most places are saying, Listen, it's not a real thing. Like as in it's not it's not. It's not recognized as a, an an addiction, but it's an addiction is what people are saying. So this is from Web MD, who says the idea that a person can be addicted to food has recently gained increasing support that comes from brain imaging and other studies of the effects of compulsive overeating on the pleasure centers in the brain experiments in animals. Now, if you didn't last episode, that should be a little thing should have gone off when I said that experiments in animals. And humans show that for some people the same reward and pleasure centers of the brain that are triggered by addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin are also activated by food especially highly palatable foods. So they're saying okay, well we've got science to show that food has the same effect as cocaine and heroin Okay. compulsive overeating as a type of behavioral addictions. So okay, so we so we've got we've got the the chemical addiction, and then the behavioral addiction. So compulsive overeating is a type of behavioral addiction, meaning that someone can become preoccupied preoccupied preoccupied with a behavior, such as eating, gambling or shopping that triggers intense pleasure. People with food addictions lose control over their eating behavior and find themselves spending excessive amounts of time involved with food and overeating and anticipating the emotional effects of compulsive overeating. So if you're reading that stuff, as someone who you know is struggling or who's you know, someone who's just interested you like, yeah, that sounds that sounds about right. But let's look and let's use our critical critical thinking skills. Let's look a little bit more or less knew a little bit more research research. Okay, so we've got another another article, which is the eight symptoms of food addiction. And they say here, while food addiction is not listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM five so that's a big book that therapists and psychologists and psychotherapists will have that will tell you, Oh, this is what bipolar is, this is bipolar one. This is what depression is, this is the symptoms. This is like this huge big Bible of mental mental health stuff. So the DSM it tips so while food addiction is not listed in the DSM, it typically involves binge eating behaviors, cravings, and a lack of control around food. Hmm, interesting. While someone gets a craving or overeats occasionally probably won't fit the criteria for the disorder. There are at least eight common symptoms Okay, so now they're calling it a disorder when it's not in the DSM five. But here we've got eight symptoms. So let's have a look what Healthline says the eight symptoms of food addiction is getting cravings despite being full

Unknown Speaker 14:55

of getting cravings despite being full. Could that be because you If eating the wrong things, like if you are like, Oh, I really fancy a cheese toastie. And instead you had a salad sandwich, you could be full on having a salad sandwich theoretically, and also still crave a cheese toastie because really, you were looking for that crunchy outside the warm, gooey, middle, little bit salty, little bit of tomato sauce. And instead, you had a salad sandwich does not match. Softer. You might have heard of crunch from the stuff inside, unlike a good salad sandwich me. But if I was craving a tea, cheese toastie, even if I was full, I'd still crave it. Okay, that doesn't mean that I am addicted to cheese to stews. Next one is eating more than intended. Okay, so eating more than intended is a really common occurrence. And people do it often. And it is not pathologize for example, you go out to a nice restaurant with your spouse, you have a few glasses of wine, you have a really nice meal at the end you like a horn, I really feel full. You're not then being like, oh my god, someone's a food addict. And you know, think about like Christmas dinner, you're gonna fall then thinking about so you know, you've got this really yummy thing and you get you eat more than then is feels comfortable. Yes, there is when there is the one we're doing more than serves us, then we can talk about it. But eating much more than intended is what they're saying here is not inherently a harmful thing. Right? Eating until feeling excessively stuffed. Okay, so this this, this too, could be something else. We're going to talk about that in a moment. But it's for a lot of folks this is just a normal behavior. Some folks it's not it doesn't feel good and there's other things that's going on behind that but it's not addiction that's a behind that. Okay, the next one feeling guilty afterward, but doing again soon. Feeling guilty after eating food. Wonder where that comes from? Die of culture and fat phobia. That's what's happening there because we shouldn't feel guilty for eating. So okay, so that's a symptom of being in a fat phobic diet, Culture Society, making up excuses. Let me see what they say about this. Brain can be a strange thing, especially in regards to addiction. Deciding to stay away from trigger foods can cause someone to create rules from themselves. Yeah, these rules may be hard to follow when faced with craving. Someone with a food addiction might find ways to reason around the rules and given to the craving. Okay, so that's just a natural response to restriction you because you cannot fight it. Your body is doing some incredible things if you're restricting if you're saying I'm not going to have that food that I am, quote addicted to your brain is going to blank page gave me that thing and doing all sorts of we're gonna talking about it in a sec. What it's going to what it's doing exactly. To get you to eat that thing. And it's not that you're addicted. It's because your body is like okay, well. They've told me I'm not allowed to eat it. Watch me, I'm gonna I'm gonna get them to eat it. That's what your that's what your brain is saying. Six repeated failures, that setting rules. Oh my god, like why the fuck do we need to have rules around food? Yeah, by seven eating, hiding, eating from others. Aha. Okay, so it could be that we've got an eating disorder on our hands that we're gonna talk about more in a moment.

Unknown Speaker 19:00

Or it could be that as fat fat

Unknown Speaker 19:04

people, or people, people who have other marginalized identities, especially if you're a supersize, fat person, eating is not safe to do in front of other people. So you know, hiding eating from others, that a lot of times it's because it's not safe. You don't want judgment. And you feel shame around the fact that you're eating for whatever reason, which is, it could be something that's going on there which is a little bit deeper which is disordered eating or an eating disorder. It could be diet culture, right. Number eight, an able to quit despite physical problems. Oh, well. Hello, we're not able to quit eating food we would then become dad. There. Hello. And the more that we say okay, well, I'm gonna eat only quote good food. The more we do that then all of the all of the stuff that our bodies do to get a To eat the food that we're restricting is going to really ramp up until we're like, fine. I'm going to give it and I'm going to eat the food right? Right. And they say they say physical problems in the short term, quote, I'm not gonna say what they say. Food can lead to weight gain acne. What? Bad breath Oh for fuck sake, fatigue, poor dental, poor dental, health and other common problems. So why don't you just stop eating food? You're fat bastard. Like what? Oh my god, eating food apparently is gonna give you Alzheimer's dementia and cancer this is just they just come up with all sorts of shit. Oh, my goodness. Anyway, okay, continue. Okay, so that's what that one says. So for me those eight signs sounds like if someone says that I'm you know, I'm hiding what I'm eating and I'm not able to stop eating food. And I really crave it. I would say, you know, can you go to a therapist? Because it sounds like maybe you might have an eating disorder, disordered eating, or are just a victim, not just but you're a victim of diet culture, as is pretty much everyone. I feel like most people have disordered eating. And it's so normalized that we don't even realize that. Okay, so this this one Medical News Today says they, I think what they've said is a little bit more down to earth a little bit. Not not. If you eat food, you're gonna like, Oh, dear. So they say the human body needs food to provide energy and nutrition. Gray, thank you. That's the first time we've had that. However, people can feel addicted to food when they become dependent on that word dependent on certain types of foods, any food can can make a person feel addictive tendencies. Yes, and that's the thing, it can really feel like we're addicted, right. And if we try and stop eating that food, then that's when the feeling of being addicted, is really heightened. And if we think about addiction to different substances, you know, like, like, opioids, or whatever. And we think about what happens in those situations when they when someone doesn't have or isn't able to access, the substances that they normally use, and what difficult things that they go through. And we can see, it's different, it's it feel, it's a preoccupation that we might have with food, but our body is not going through this, this withdrawal or this, do anything to get it, you know, that you would with, with things that are actually chemically addictive, and it is a big thing here. Addiction is it's, it's an illness, right? It's it's a mental health condition. And so being addicted doesn't mean that you're a bad person.

Unknown Speaker 23:36

Any type of addiction, even if you feel like you are addicted to sugar, or food or whatever. Or if if someone is addicted to other substances, they're not a bad person, it is something that is a very complicated topic. It's something that's really one side is very encouraged in our culture, if you think about substances, like alcohol, how that consumption is, is really encouraged. Whereas other things, it's very stigmatized. And, you know, if someone says I'm a, you know, I use alcohol versus someone who says, I use heroin, what we would think about those two people and the stigma that the person who uses heroin would face versus someone who uses alcohol and really, you know, both are maybe you know, and the thing is, you could be used and we know, you could use alcohol and it's not a big deal, right? You can just like I enjoy this right and if someone is enjoying other types of substances, and it works for them and their life is functioning and whatever, Who Who are we to say, you shouldn't be doing that? And I think about that with the foodstuff right is why are people why do people do certain things? Whatever it is, you know, it's, you know, for us to to live survive thrive. To be happy experience, joy, whatever. And I think about when I was in my stage where I thought I was addicted to food, I was trying to survive an abusive relationship. And it was literally one of the only joys that I had literally in the amount of joy that I felt from food that I snuck was something that kept me alive. And so was that a negative thing? At the time, I thought it was deeply shameful and awful. And now I'm like, Thank fuck for what I discovered was actually an eating disorder. Because it saved me, it means that I'm alive today, whereas who knows what could have happened? So let's see what people say about sugar addiction. So sugar consumption can create a short term high, and a spark of energy in the body. Some studies have suggested sugar is as addictive as cocaine

Unknown Speaker 26:00

have they have have?

Unknown Speaker 26:05

Where's your link? This is from addiction. center.com. Do they link back to the studies? No, they don't have a studies study saying this. No. No. So what we know and it's pretty, it's well established. And, you know, therapists and people will say, Listen, studies have been done on human brains to see what happens when they eat food or have sugar or whatever. And it lights up. And so it's like, Dun dun dun. It lights up. Uh huh. Evidence that's we have a food addict on our hands. And oh, okay, now let's let's get them to have a hug from someone they love. Oh, it it like it lights up. Oh, they are maybe they're also addicted to hugs. Oh, and let's show them pictures of puppies. Oh, the light. It lights up? Oh, they're probably a fucking puppy addict too. You know? So the stuff that lights up. is is it's a reward is a reward. Right? And so anything that we enjoy, we're getting dopamine, we're getting reward in our beautiful brains from that thing. And if it happens to be food, or it happens to be watching someone, you know, hug a puppy on YouTube. It's the same thing is happening, right? So people who talk about carbohydrate carbohydrate, so copperheads a carbohydrate addicts.com This one was funny. As many as 75% of those who are fat are addicted to carbohydrates. Oh. Is that so 75% of fat people are addicted to carbohydrates. Wow. That's such great information where did that study come from? Oh, there is no study. Oh, you just seen it. They end with this craving reward negative consequence cycle suggests that yes, carbs are addictive.

Unknown Speaker 28:37

So says So does it listen to the study. So this study is evidence for sugar addiction behavioral and neurochemical effects of intermittent excessive sugar intake. And I want to use their definition of addiction. So we can look at you know, does this sound like what happens with food? They say the diagnostic criteria for addiction can be grouped into three stages. Binging withdrawal role. Credit has three stages. It's not three stages is more. Anyway, they talk about the these are these are the stages. Okay group grouped into different ones. Okay, so binging, withdrawal, craving and sensitization I fucking hate that word. I can never say it right centralization. Okay, so let's talk about him. Binging Alright, so, as we know, there is there are times in our lives where we will binge and it will just be a normal part of life. It was my birthday last week. I was like okay, well, what can I what am I going to have for dinner? I'm gonna buy some things I really like. So did I buy something? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I got a I got an ice cream. And I got a Chinese takeaway. And I ordered from I really love cinema popcorn. So I ordered from the cinema, this popcorn. And I was like this jumbo popcorn and I was like, oh, it's probably, you know, the size of two larges. Turns out it was the size of six largers. So, I was eating, I was eating that popcorn and my, my Chinese hadn't arrived yet. And so I was like eating the popcorn and and the Chinese arrived to house in Chinese and I was like, oh my god, I'm really full. And so I forgot about the ice cream. Anyway, so there we go, that's a binge. I mean, you could suggest that oh, maybe, you know, a binges is if we're getting into like pathological like, you know, fast and, you know, other other things that are going on to make it more kind of less relaxed than what I was doing right? I was just like, chowing down on some on some nice food, and ate too much for what my body wanted at that time. And that's okay. Right. So, and then we also then have it then moving into something that is a little bit more harmful, maybe to my mental health. And that would be moving into BDD. So binge eating disorder. And so we can have signs and symptoms of BDD, but not actually, like full blown BDD. And I'll talk about that more later what that looks like. And so Okay, so with the for the diagnostic criteria of this is first is binging. Okay, so we know that someone can binge in a way that is not harmful for them away, that is just a normal part of being a human being. And we also know it's a part of, of something which is a mental health condition, an eating disorder. And so it is not necessarily addiction. Next is withdrawal. Okay, so let me tell you what, we're talking about withdrawal. They use withdrawal from opioids as their criteria. And so does this sounds familiar to you? When you have eaten food, and you or whatever it is sugar, whatever you feel like you might be addicted to Does this sound familiar? Of when you haven't had access to that food? Trembling and tremors, muscle pain or aches, hunger or loss of appetite, fatigue, sweating, irritability, agitation, depression, anxiety, nausea, vomiting, confusion, insomnia, paranoia, seizures, dilated pupils. I mean, maybe a few of them. Anxiety, maybe no. But really, that doesn't sound about right does it? That doesn't sound about right, that doesn't feel like the experience of what's happening when you are not getting access to this substance, which is sugar or food or whatever. By the way, our bodies need food.

Unknown Speaker 33:08

sugar, carbohydrates, right? Our bodies need that. And so, I mean, if you went long enough, without eating, you probably would start doing this stuff. But I'm talking about like the kind of say, between, you know, when you've had your lunch and to having your data or whatever, this stuff is not happening, because it's not like we need to keep fueling that, quote, addiction, because it's just a normal body function. Eating is like something that we just have to do. And yes, our body will say, Hey, I'm hungry, feed me and different things are happening with our body when we're hungry. But it's not because we're withdrawing from, we're in withdrawal from this quote, drug, right. Next, they say craving. So craving they say often has reference to extreme motivation, which can be measured using operant conditioning. So I'd say yes, we could, we could be craving. But I think what we're saying here is the extreme motivation. And I think when we're getting to the extreme motivation, that's when we're getting into eating disorder territory. That's when we're getting into maybe the IDI, right. of, you know, it doesn't matter if it's the middle of the night, I'm going to go drive to my 24 hour supermarket and buy the things that I want. And, again, that's not addiction that is falling into BDD, binge eating disorder. sensitization let me read what they say here. Behavioral sensitization is typically measured as an increased locomotion in response to repeat it administration's of a drug. For example, after repeated doses of amphetamine followed by abstinence a challenge dose, which has little or no effect in naive animals cause markethive For activity, animal synthesize to one seven is often show cross sensitization, which is defined as an increased local motor response to a different drug or substance. Cross sensitization can also be manifest in consumer Tory behavior. Animals synthesized to one drug may show increased intake of a different drug. In other words, one drug drug acts as a gateway to another. So we think about this what this is saying in plain language is you build a tolerance for food and then you can't get enough and then you are going to cross over into needing other substance substances because you know, eating food just doesn't do it for you anymore. And you know, you eat 75 Twinkies in an hour and it's not enough and that's not what happens right? That doesn't probably doesn't sound familiar to you. Where you one day will be having one square of chocolate and then the next day it's like okay, well I now I'm on 275 packs a chocolate you know because my tolerance is built up and now I forget food that food was such a you know that does nothing for me anymore now I've now I'm now I'm using different substances like that's not what happens. And this is what they're talking about. Right? They're talking about this and then this study. This study is a study that they've done on DACA guess what they did that on? They did on rats, Oh, rats, the pool rats. And then like, Oh, rats, like sugar water and they they will choose sugar water over plain water. Or fucking No shit.

Unknown Speaker 37:01

Rats Don't, don't rats don't live in a world that says if you eat sugar, what are your piece of shit and have parents mums who say you look a bit fat or, you know, live in a society that values them for their parents, their rats? They're going to be like, Okay, what how can I live longer? I'm going to get as you know, this nice juicy sweet water. Because it fucking days good. We're not rats, right? Okay, so everything about the diet land swing, to the land, the diet, land swing is restriction to bench if you think about a swing, if you pull it up in restriction, it has to go down and it's going to go into binge and so you restrict binge restrict binge and the more you pull it up into restrict, the more it's going to go over into binge. So and that's restriction physically and mentally, and restriction makes you fixated on food. It makes food taste more delicious. And one thing one thing that it does is it increases our appetites when we restrict the hormones that make us feel hungry. Increase. Ghrelin is made in the stomach and it stimulates hunger by entering the brain and acting on the neurons in the hypothalamus to increase the activity of hunger, causing nerve cells and reducing the activity of hunger inhibiting cells. And as the stomach empties the release of ghrelin increases the hormones that make us feel full. What do you think they go down? So you're really craving food. Leptin is the most powerful appetite suppressing hormone and is made in fat cells. And so if we're not eating food, and we are our bodies is like, okay, what can that do to make them eat, I'm gonna make them feel really, really hungry. And even if they I'm gonna make them feel hungry still, because we don't have food. Also, your body will make the sight sound, taste and smell of food increase, it'll just make it way more appetizing. And so you'll be like, Oh my god, I'm just salivating I'm just walked by we I just walked by a food store and I'm fucking salivating what's wrong with me? That's your body being like, hey, fake mag me that thing that you've said that we're not allowed to have and your metabolism slows down. The other thing is that your muscle mass decreases and your your fat mass increases because muscle uses more energy so we don't need our body to be burning more energy we need to be burning less energy if we're literally starving. And so you don't want to move your body as much and so that's going to add to what you got to like, oh my god, I'm so lazy. I just can't be bothered to do anything. I'm just such a I'm addicted to food. I can't I don't want to move my body. I'm just a piece of shit. And all of this can be really alarming and feel Like addiction and feel like we're just out of control and food has his grip on us. And just really distressing. So was I addicted to food in the past? Well, I was addicted to food in the same way that I'm addicted to breathing air. I was addicted to food. And the same way I'm addicted to drinking water the same way I'm addicted to sleeping or having a nice poo, you know, it's a normal body function. And the moment that you were denied that, then you were going to need more of it. And we'll talk about the definition of addiction addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences. Well, people are saying, well, the adverse consequences is fatness. But we know that some some folks can eat food and never gain weight. They can they really struggle with it, and they're really struggling to keep weight on. And so would they be a food addict? Because they don't have quote, adverse consequences. But what about if someone is already fat? And they are, quote, a food addict? But they don't have they don't put on any other way? Are they a food addict? Or is that a not a food addict? Because it seems like rewarding stimuli despite adverse consequences. And it's a framing of fatness as an adverse consequence and a framing of of eating food as a direct tie to gaining weight. And we know it's actually a lot more complicated than that. But reasons why people are fat are in the hundreds.

Unknown Speaker 41:51

Yeah, all of this stuff, it's It's enough to make you feel irrational and desperate and imbalanced and feeling addicted. So really, when I was in that feeling, like as addictive stage, what was what I was experienced was binge eating disorder. And binge eating disorder is seen as this sister to bulimia, but without the purging. And so folks who experienced BPD may have a compulsion to eat more food than their body currently needs in one session, to the point where they feel like it's a problem, and they feel like it's disordered. As humans, we all binge all the time, right? As I discussed, and it's totally normal. The difference is the restriction phase and the guilt and the feeling of compulsion, and maybe eating alone or in secret or having binge foods, or maybe not even enjoying the food or the taste, just eating. And it's actually the most prevalent eating disorder in adults. And it's still a relatively new concept. It's only it was only formally recognized, and in 2013, one to 3% of the population have BPD, and is spread equally between men and women. We have no good information on gender nonconforming, non binary or trans people. But we do know gender queer folks experience EDS more than other groups, probably due to the stress of living in a marginalized body. When I was growing up, there was anorexia and bulimia right. As in, you know, that's what the general public talked about. And what an eating disorder looked like, to me was a thin white teenage girl who was not eating enough food. But the reality is that eating disorders come in many different forms. And the indiscriminate right, anyone can have an eating disorder. And the difference between disordered eating and an eating disorder is the impact it's having on your life. And so you remember I said before, like, I think, you know, most people in our society engages in some type of disordered eating. And I think that the, the, you know, someone could be engaging in daily restriction, for example, and it have a massive amount of impact on their life and their mental health or as someone else could be engaging in the exact same behaviors, and it could be okay for them, right? And so we can be getting engaging in the same behaviors and it just not have an impact or have an impact. It's about how much it's impacting your life. And people who have BPD tend to have higher levels of body dissatisfaction and lower self esteem and it's linked to being restrictive with food. Okay, dieting, and it can be a method for coping with other issues. Yeah, so what about sugar? Ah, so, studies have shown no conclusive evidence that sugar is addicted to human addictive for humans. So if you think about what behaviors someone who is addicted to a substance display, are we displaying them with sugar, you know, are we hitting rock bottom and, you know, stealing and ending up in in prison because of the things that you're needing to do to, to meet up with the supply of food or sugar that you need to hit because your tolerance is getting more and more? No, we're not seeing that, right. And if you were addicted to sugar, you'd be addicted to sugar in all forms, right? You'd be addicted to drinking catch up, or, you know, eating mangoes or, or iced tea, right. But it's when we often think about sugar addiction, we think about things that are, quote, the bad foods, right? What diet culture has told us of the bad foods versus just sugar, you know, eating a sugar cube the big thing here to think about is that symptoms of addiction increase with more access to the substance substance you're addicted to. Okay, so if you're taking more of something that is actually addictive, you're like you smoking cigarettes, you smoking 10 a day and then you're like, oh, let's get you know,

Unknown Speaker 46:32

I've got a 20 pack on i 20, you're going to become more addicted, right. And so the next day, you're going to have to have a 20 pack again, because the 10 is not going to do it for you. Whereas symptoms of food addiction or sugar addiction, decrease and disappear, with access with more access to sugar and food. So the more we allow ourselves to eat sugar, eat food, the less those feelings of addiction are present. And that is the big difference is the source of feeling addicted, is restriction. Also, you don't need drugs, you do need sugar, you do need food, our brains need sugar, and carbs to function. Glucose, a form of sugar is the primary source of energy for every cell in the body. The less sugar sugar you eat, the more you're going to crave it. So no, we're probably not addicted to food, or to sugar.

Unknown Speaker 47:54

I think about it too. Like you know, I've used this analogy before. About imagine if we were free divers and holding our breath and going down as deep as possible. Coming back to the surface, the first thing that we're going to do is gasping for air. Take a deep breath in because we have been starved of that air our body is saying get to that surface, hurry up. Quick breathe, taking a big gulp because we haven't had air for x x long. And our bodies are doing the same with food with sugar, whatever, whether what you know, those those those things that we need in our bodies. And when you restrict it's like you're going diving, you can't stay down there forever, or you'll die. And and so we need to surface and the more we say there's something wrong with me because I took a deep breath and the deep breath is binging is eating foods that we've we have decided is bad. The more we say that that was that is wrong and pathologize it the more we're going to try and force ourselves to beat living under the water. But like just stay under the water longer. And you won't need to breathe as much. It doesn't work like that. Because we need to breathe, it will be good. We need to eat or we'll be good. We need sugar or we'll be dead

Unknown Speaker 49:30

Yeah, so let's give a roundup of everything that we've we've talked about right now. So is food or sugar addiction real. So if you think about food all the time, and maybe you count down the minutes until you can eat again or you have a preference for foods that you label as bad or sugar filled or unhealthy. This can feel really distressing and can feel like we're addicted like There's something really wrong with us. However, there isn't any evidence to show that what happens in our brains is addiction in the same way as other substances. Our reward centers in our brains do light up, but they are the same ones that light up when we hug someone we love, or we watch a funny video or we see a cute puppy. And the big reason why people feel addicted to sugar because we really can feel addicted to sugar or food is one they are restricting that food or sugar or to they actually have an eating disorder. And for both scenarios, the food addiction symptoms will decrease and hopefully disappear when we fully physically and mentally allow ourselves those things into our lives that sugar that food and that's a big difference with substance addiction the opposite happens so the more the more substances are, are actually addictive that you have in your life the more you consume consume them those addictive feelings increase because they are actually addictive. Whereas with food with sugar the more access we have to it those addiction feelings decrease the more we allow ourselves and that's a big difference between something that's that's actually addictive and something that just feels addictive. So no food or sugar addiction isn't real but can it can really feel like it when we restrict ourselves so hopefully we can we can put that one to bed we can say okay, really I just need to know if you feel it if you're really struggling and you're feeling like you know out of control it would be if you can it'd be really good idea to go and talk to a mental health professional if that's available for you. And you know big compassion because this stuff is like this the rhetoric we have around addiction one around food and eating too much of it to and around fatness three, like Ha like imagine that amount of iron we need to say imagine well, we have a lot of us have felt it, you know, that amount of shame is overwhelming and powerful and sucks, right? And so if you're in that position then I sending sending out love to you all the love to you and hoping that you can find some comfort and some peace and know that you're not alone. You know, the most prevalent eating disorder is binge eating disorder. And Also heads up fat people can be anorexic. And it's not normal, or normal. It is normal for people to be stressed around food, but really, we should have a peaceful relationship with food if possible. So

Unknown Speaker 53:15

all right, well, thanks for hanging out with me. This

Unknown Speaker 53:17

is on pressure on aw and I'll see you in the next episode. Stay fierce fatty See you in a while and again.